Alpha Male

On the very same 41st Avenue that "connects communities," I stopped today for all of 2 1/2 minutes to take pictures of a speed bump. One would think that a speed bump ought be designed to actually slow down dumbass South Sacramentans.

The speeders are predominately brown. I just calls it likes I sees it. Call it stereotyping, call it racist, call it whatever you want, but brown alpha males are speeding through these neighborhoods all the time:


Look at these two, going 40 miles an hour down the middle of the road, and then think of all those dumbass "traffic calming planners" who, for the sake of FIRE TRUCK INGRESS, allowed these spaces so that anyone could easily navigate the street at 60 mph with one finger on the steering wheel.

Here's something to consider -- for all the people who navigate over the bump, they almost all do so at speeds well in excess of 15 mph. So, what's the problem with a fire truck doing the same thing? What, the truck's gonna get hurt taking a bump at 25 mph? Firemen gonna get boo-boos banging around inside the cab? Christ! Cars do it all the fucking time!

Of course, I'm sure the fire department has conducted all sorts of analyses why speed bumps are bad. Maybe firemen are thrown off the back. Maybe the drivers lose control. Maybe response times are reduced by a few seconds. Maybe.

Maybe it's utter bullshit, too.

What is interesting, and I find it highly interesting, is that the local residents, so pissed off at the wanton ineffectiveness of these bumps and believing for themselves that it's utter bullshit, actually laid their own asphalt in the grooves in the summer of 2007 because their city couldn't wouldn't design an effective calming device. The bad news is that their asphalt lasted no more than two months before being worn down by all those drivers, like the driver above, who drove directly over them. In my mind it was a noble effort by citizens to suppress the actions of assholes that our local governments are unwilling to suppress.


Look! There goes another one right now, traveling, of course, at the suggested speed of 15 mph.

If you can't stop 'em, join 'em.